Nine Effective Features Of NVMe Verification IP For PCIe-Based SSD Storage


Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) is a new software interface optimized for PCIe Solid State Drives (SSD). This paper provides an overview of the NVMe specification and examines some of its key features. We will discuss its pros and cons, compare it to other conventional technologies, and point out key areas to focus on during its verification. You will learn how NVMe Questa Verification IP... » read more

In-Memory Vs. Near-Memory Computing


New memory-centric chip technologies are emerging that promise to solve the bandwidth bottleneck issues in today’s systems. The idea behind these technologies is to bring the memory closer to the processing tasks to speed up the system. This concept isn’t new and the previous versions of the technology fell short. Moreover, it’s unclear if the new approaches will live up to their billi... » read more

Week in Review: IoT, Security, Auto


Deals Dialog Semiconductor made a blockbuster deal with Apple – the chip company will license power management technologies and transfer some assets to Apple, which will use them in their internal chip research and development. More than 300 Dialog employees, mostly engineers, will join Apple, which will pay $300 million in cash for the transaction and prepay another $300 million for Dialog ... » read more

Hybrid Memory


Gary Bronner, senior vice president of Rambus Labs, talks about the future of DRAM scaling, why one type of memory won’t solve all needs, and what the pros and cons are of different memories. https://youtu.be/R0hhDx2Fb7Q » read more

3D NAND Flash Wars Begin


3D NAND suppliers are gearing up for a new battle amid a period of price and competitive pressures, racing each other to the next technology generations. Competition is intensifying as a new player enters the 3D NAND market—China’s Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC). Backed by billions of dollars in funding from the Chinese government, YMTC recently introduced its first 3D NAND techn... » read more

Rethinking SSDs In Data Centers


Semiconductors that control how data gets on and off solid-state drives (SSDs) inside of data centers are having a moment in the sun. This surge in interest involves much more than just the SSD device. It leverages an entire ecosystem, starting with system architects and design engineers, who must figure out the best paths for data flow on- and off-chip and through a system. It also includes... » read more

ARC HS4x And HS4xD CPUs


Synopsys’ DesignWare ARC CPUs comprise a family of highly configurable and customizable processor cores, which ship in nearly two billion chips per year. ARC’s popularity in embedded devices makes the company second only to ARM in the number of chips that integrate its licensable CPUs. More than 230 ARC licensees use the cores in products that span a broad range of embedded applications, su... » read more

Enablement For A Decade Of Innovation


As I do every January, I am looking back 5, 10, and 15 years to see what predictions did and did not turn out to be right, and how that relates to design technologies enabling those developments. Looking back five years reveals just how key system-development technologies were for what IEEE dubbed the “Top 11 Technologies of the Decade”. Looking back 10 years shows how they enabled communic... » read more

The Memory And Storage Hierarchy


The memory and storage hierarchy is a useful way of thinking about computer systems, and the dizzying array of memory options available to the system designer. Many different parameters characterize the memory solution. Among them are latency (how long the CPU needs to wait before the first data is available) and bandwidth (how fast additional data can be “streamed” after the first data poi... » read more

The Bumpy Road To 3D NAND


The NAND flash memory market is dynamic, but it’s also sometimes predictable. Suppliers tend to roll out identical NAND flash chips and then scale them to smaller geometries. And NAND chip prices rise and fall, depending on the supply/demand equation at a given point. Going forward, though, the NAND market is expected to become less predictable, if not chaotic, amid a new and major technol... » read more

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